


Sincerely

by C31PO (SirenAlpha)



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Truth Spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 14:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenAlpha/pseuds/C31PO
Summary: Connor had thought liars' curses were straightforward and easily broken, but apparently Ryan can find a way to lie while cursed to tell the truth.





	Sincerely

**Author's Note:**

> I read a few fics about being cursed to tell the truth and was thinking way too hard about RNH's communication skills in my big fic and this came out of it. Basically, I wanted a fic about telling the truth where truth was a lot more subjective, the person cursed wasn't considered a joker and able to laugh off not being able to lie, and also where the truth that breaks the curse wasn't having to confess a crush. 
> 
> Also, I gave Ryan an unnamed OC ex in this fic for plot reasons.

Connor doesn’t realize it at the time, but the first sign that something is wrong comes when Drat starts bragging about winning the Art Ross in practice one game into the season.

“Oh yeah? And I’m -,” Nuge cuts off into a cough.

“You good?” Drat asks.

“Yeah,” he says, one hand at his throat. “Felt like something got caught in my throat.”

And whatever Nuge was going to say was forgotten. 

Connor doesn’t catch the first part of what was said the second time it happens. They’re on the plane, and he’s pulling out his head phones, and he hears Nuge cough. 

“You’re not getting sick are you?” Klef asks Nuge. 

“Nah, just something in my throat,” he says, and takes a drink from his water bottle. 

The next time Connor hears it is during an informal meeting between the captains and management. They’re discussing whether they should send a twenty year old rookie down, and Connor is on the fence about it. He still isn’t going to tell management anything that might turn them against the guy though. Looch, Ebs, and Nuge are on the same page as him. 

Then Nuge starts speaking and barely gets out a word before he starts coughing. It doesn’t sound like a something caught in the throat cough. It sounds like a seriously sick cough. The whole conversation breaks down as they all stare worriedly at Nuge.

Looch puts a hand on Nuge’s shoulder. “You good?”

“Yeah,” he says, but his voice sounds hoarse. “I’m not sick. It’s the first time I’ve coughed today.”

Management leaves, and one of them makes a quip about Nuge taking a ricola. 

Connor definitely notices Nuge’s coughing after that. If he’s sick, it’s the weirdest sickness he’s ever seen. Nuge will go for days without any sign of sickness then all of a sudden start coughing like he has pneumonia or something. He’s fine before it, fine after it, no other symptoms of illness. If there’s anything triggering it, he doesn’t know what it is because it doesn’t seem to matter when or where. No one would notice given how infrequent they are except they keep getting louder and worse. 

“I think I’ve figured out what the problem with all the coughing might be,” Nuge says, dropping into a seat at the hotel’s breakfast room beside Connor and Ebs. “I think I’ve been cursed to tell the truth.”

It’s a week until their last game before Christmas, and this is not what Connor wants to hear. There’s no time for fixing anything until the new year. “That’s your big idea?”

Ebs also gives Nuge a skeptical look while he pours creamer into his coffee. “Liars’ curses only work if you’re, you know, actually a liar. You aren’t much of a liar.”

“Yes, that’s why the coughing which is triggered by lying doesn’t happen so much. It happens when I try to be sarcastic so saying one thing and meaning another which I guess counts as lying?”

“There’s no way that’s often enough to stick,” Ebs argues, shaking his head. “Liars’ curses are designed to force people who lie constantly into telling the truth. If you don’t lie enough to fulfill the terms you’ll go back to normal.”

“It’s been like two or three months. That’s plenty of time for it to fall off if it was going to.”

“Then how’s it sticking?” Connor asks. “I don’t think sarcasm is the real problem if it really is a liar's curse.”

“I have two theories about that, actually. It could be lying by omission. Liars’ curses can’t make you talk; they just don’t let you lie. Or it’s like a perspective thing, like Obi-Wan Kenobi saying Darth Vader killing Anakin Skywalker is true from a certain point of view.”

“I guess,” Connor says, and he doesn’t really know enough about curses to argue otherwise.

“Yeah, maybe, if you’re not saying something important or saying it in a misleading way without outright lying but it’s still bad for you or someone else, it could be possible,” Ebs says. “It sounds complicated though. Like the caster would have to be more than a beginner and know you for that, though. This isn’t some standard liar’s curse to like expose a scammer or something if you’re right.”

“Is there something you’re not telling someone?” Connor asks, unable to help being curious. 

“Nothing to curse me over, I don’t think,” Nuge says. 

“Ah, but there is something,” Ebs says, smacking Nuge’s shoulder. “Tell us what it is and your curse will be broken in no time.”

Nuge only glares at Ebs without saying anything, and it strikes Connor that maybe that’s what he’s been cursed for. Not that Nuge lies to your face, but that when asked he won’t answer if he doesn’t want to. He hadn’t noticed so much his rookie year, probably due to them both being out on injury, but he’s noticed as a captain. Like he’ll ask Nuge something to get his opinion, and Nuge will answer, but it will sound like what he thinks Connor wants to hear rather than his real opinion. He doesn’t know if Nuge does it to coddle him or what, and it’s been frustrating to just not know. 

“Didn’t your ex practice magic?” Connor asks. He doesn’t know her well at all. He hadn’t spent much time with many of  his teammates’ wives and girlfriends the year before due to his injury, and Nuge broke up with her before the start of the season, but he remembers hearing that. 

“Yeah,” Nuge says with a sigh.

“Woah, you really think she’d do that to you?” Ebs asks.

“If she did, I don’t think she did it to be mean,” Nuge says, looking away. “I think she’d have done it because she thinks it would help me, but I don’t really want to call and ask.”

“What makes you say that?” Ebs asks. “Curses are bad things.”

Nuge fidgets. “Well, she complained a lot about communication, and said things like she never knew what I was thinking, so she might have thought a liar’s curse would make me open up or something.”

“It’s a curse,” Ebs insists. “They don’t help people. They’re to shame and out liars.”

“Yeah, but it’s working pretty much the way she wants it to,” Connor says. 

Ebs stares at him in confusion, but Nuge blushes and looks away.

“What makes you say that? You haven’t even been on double dates with him and his ex,” Ebs says. Connor could take it as an insult, but it’s been a thing Ebs has been doing to remind him that other people have experiences he doesn’t. 

“Yeah, but he’s thinking about how honest he is and also telling us about it,” Connor says then pauses to take a bite of food. “I haven’t known him for as long as you, but I heard Hallsy complain about him plenty.”

“Fuckin’ Hallsy,” Nuge mutters under his breath, and Connor can still hear the affection in it. 

Ebs doesn’t looks convinced. “Yeah because Hallsy is one to complain about communication.”

Conor shrugs and says, “Yeah, he just called Nuge his problem rookie for always being super upfront about stuff he needed help with.” 

Ebs nods. “Nope, I remember that. He got so pissed your rookie year-,”

“Yes, I remember,” Nuge says, cutting him off. “I just don’t think everyone needs to know everything about me all the time. I don’t think it’s something I should be cursed over.”

Ebs sighs. “I don’t know, man, if she meant it like that. I can think of a few times now where just saying something would have made things a lot easier.”

Nuge glares at him. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Yeah, of the break up,” Ebs says. 

“Whatever,” Nuge says, stabbing viciously at his food. 

Ebs sighs, but doesn’t seem too interested in pressing Nuge farther. Connor holds his thoughts for the moment. Instead, he waits until they’re leaving breakfast and taps Nuge on the shoulder. He turns back while everyone else continues on, paying no mind to a captain and an alternate speaking together. 

“I think you’re right about the curse, and I’m sorry about it, especially if it did come from your ex,” Connor says gently. “It’s not her or anyone else’s place to try and make you change.”

“Oh,” Nuge says, surprised and starting to blush. He nods awkwardly and says, “Thanks.”

“Not sure what I can do, but let me know if I can help at all,” Connor offers.

“Sure,” he says, but he sounds like he has no intention of involving Connor any further. He doesn’t cough though, and Connor doesn’t know how that can be if his intentions don’t match his words. Then again, if any hockey player was going to loophole his way out of a liar’s curse,  Connor would bet his money on Nuge. 

It doesn’t come up again before they come back from their short break over Christmas. Connor reminds himself to keep an eye on Nuge and any coughing. He keeps waiting to hear it, but it never comes. 

“Did you break the curse?” Connor asks Nuge when they roll around to a homestand in January. “You haven’t been coughing any.”

“No, I haven’t. I just cut out the sarcasm.”

“Have you found out anything about it at least?”

Nuge looks at him consideringly. Connor can’t remember ever seeing Nuge decide on his words like this. He sighs and doesn’t quite look at Connor when he answers, “Yeah, I did. I called my ex, and apparently our break up was less friendly than I thought it was.”

“Oh, sorry, so did she do it to get back at you?”

Nuge shakes his head. “No, well, it’s maybe part of it. She said she did it to help me and my next girlfriend, but she sounded pretty pissed off. Could have been because she expected different results though.”

“Different how?”

Nuge shrugs. “It sounded like she thought I was lying to her and not just being a bad communicator.”

Connor does his best to ask as non-judgmentally as possible, “You didn’t cheat on her did you?”

Nuge shoots him a look for that. “No.”

“Good,” Connor says because he doesn’t like cheaters. He knows guys do it and while he could say something about it as a captain in juniors, he can’t say it as a captain of men older and more experienced than him. Not yet, anyways. “Did you ask her if she could break it?”

“Yeah, and it sounded like even if she wanted to she couldn’t because I don’t outright lie very much.”

“So how do you break it then?”

Nuge holds up his hands in a no idea gesture. “Tell the truth.”

“But you already do that so any other ideas?”

Nuge tilts his head. “I don’t know. I’m just starting to think there might be a difference between being a liar and not being honest.”

“If you say so,” Connor says, because that makes no sense to him. 

A couple hours later, he realizes that that was the most upfront Nuge has ever been with him, actually answering him with not only the bare bones of what happened but also Nuge’s opinion of them. That he could have just told Connor his ex did it and left it there and that he probably would have a year ago. 

Connor goes to Ebs to talk about it privately as soon as he can because so far as he knows, Ebs is the only other person Nuge has told about there being a curse. “I think Nuge is trying to break the curse.”

“I would hope so,” Ebs says, giving Connor a look. 

“I mean, I think he is trying to do what he thinks his girlfriend wants him to do, and I’m a little worried about it,” Connor explains.  

“Why? I’d be worried if it were Hallsy, but Nuge is...less dumb,” Ebs says. “No offense to Hallsy.”

“Haven’t you noticed that he’s been talking more?”

“I think he’s been talking the same amount,” Ebs says with a shrug. 

“No, it’s definitely more. He just seems to be talking more seriously and actually answering questions instead of changing the topic or something. Like, he’s trying to say what he actually means,” he says, feeling like he’s learned something important about Nuge as he says it. That this is what Nuge meant about the difference between being a liar and not being honest. That it’s possible that Nuge has learned to mean what he says without saying what he means.

Ebs considers it for a moment, looking off as he thinks over his last conversations with Nuge. “Maybe, I guess?”

Connor sighs, brushing a hand through his hair. “I just get the feeling that he’s trying different things to break the curse and one of those things might be talking to you about something important. And you should be nice about it when he does it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be nice about it?”

“I don’t know, I think you would be fine, but if it takes a curse for Nuge to say it,” Connor trails off and shrugs. “You should be nice about it.”

“Yeah, Davo, I’ll be nice to him,” Ebs says, putting a hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Nuge is my friend. I’m not going to be a dick to him.”

“Okay,” he agrees, hoping that he’s said enough.

Connor doesn’t hear anything more about it for another couple of weeks. Then, Ebs comes into practice and just gives him a hug.

“What’s up?” Connor asks, worried and gingerly patting his back.

“You were right. Nuge came around to talk to me, and it was good you gave me the heads up,” Ebs says, and after pulling back Connor can see that he’s smiling.

“Oh, good so it went well? His curse is broken?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” Ebs says, but Connor’s pretty sure that it is broken from the way he’s smiling.  

Nuge also seems happy during practice, smiling and joking around with the guys between drills. Connor doesn’t say anything about it until they’re off the ice, and he catches Nuge outside the locker room so there’s not quite so many people around.

“Heard from Ebs you might have broken your curse,” he tells Nuge.

Nuge turns to him. “My hair’s blue,” he says, and doesn’t cough. 

Connor beams at him. “That’s so great, congratulations on breaking it!”

He knows Nuge isn’t the most touchy feely of guys, but he thinks this is something deserving of a hug. He puts his arms around his shoulders and brings him in. Nuge would normally just return hugs lightly or with a tap on the back, but this time he really hugs back, going so far as giving Connor a squeeze and tucking his head against his shoulder. 

“Thanks,” Nuge says when they pull apart, and he looks almost embarrassed over it. 

“Is it alright if I ask how you did it? Did talking with Ebs work?” 

“Yeah,” he says, ducking his head. “And like my family and Hallsy and so on.”

“How are you feeling about it? Doing better?”

He tilts his head and then after a moment admits, “Not totally sure honestly. Like, I’m happy it’s broken and it’s actually been a pretty good outcome, but.”

He trails off, shaking his head and biting his lip. 

“It’s not the same when a curse made you do it rather than choosing to do it on your own,” Connor tries. 

“Yeah, like,” he huffs out a breath then says, “She told me what the problem was and then broke up with me. She didn’t have to curse me over it. Like, isn’t the break up enough damage?”

“Are you going to do anything about it?”

Nuge shrugs. “I can’t press charges because I can’t prove damages. Even if the intention was to curse me, the effect was ultimately a benefit to me. I can’t be like I didn’t like it and expect anything to happen. And I’m not sure even if I could that I would do it.”

“Still a shit move.”

“Yeah, it was that,” he says with a nod.

“At least it’s broken now, right?”

Nuge smiles again, “Yeah, it definitely is.”

Connor could say that things go back to normal after that, but they kind of don’t. Nuge is different. He’s more upfront about his opinions as an assistant captain which Connor genuinely appreciates even when they don’t always align with his. It makes his job way easier, and he finds himself trusting Nuge more for it. 

The other guys notice as well, though Connor isn’t sure how conscious of it they are. Nuge used to stand out as a kind of ‘island unto himself’ type of guy, which was pretty rare in hockey. Connor doesn’t think anybody disliked him or anything like that, but he’s also pretty sure he didn’t ever see guys having one on one conversations with Nuge rather than with any other A or with Connor. Nuge also used to stick with a rather small core of guys on the team with the new guys not really warming up to him. Now there seems to be less of a split. There are just more people around Nuge.

They clinch a playoff spot, and the whole team goes out to celebrate. Connor finds Nuge early on, hugs him, and tells him, “You helped make this happen.”

Nuge returns the hug and laughs. “Yeah, it’s kind of a team sport.”

“No, I mean as an A. You really stepped up. You got so much better this season.”  

“Thanks,” he says, and his blush is visible even under the low and colored lights of the club they’re in. “You weren’t so bad yourself, Captain.”

And now Connor is blushing. “Thanks.”

Connor buzzes with nerves and energy over the playoffs. Pretty much any guy who isn’t a vet of other teams who have made it to the playoffs is buzzing with excess energy and excitement. The first game of the playoffs falls on Nuge’s birthday so Connor gets a cake for after the game because they don’t have time for anything more. They lose in OT and there’s no pity point to be had. Still, nearly the whole team sticks around to eat some of the cake and say happy birthday to Nuge. 

“You know,” Nuge says casually when the cake is gone and it’s just him and Connor left. “I wasn’t totally sure what would break my curse.”

“It was telling the truth, wasn’t it?” Connor asks, leaning against the table and wondering why they’re talking about it when it’s over and done now. 

“Yes, but I didn’t know what truth or who to. I didn’t know how long or how much it would take. So I started with the safest people, the ones closest to me and worked my way out.”

“I know,” Connor says, still confused. He’d been able to figure that out without Nuge spelling it out for him, so why say it?

Nuge stands up, tapping along the table as he moves closer to Connor. He stops in front of him, leaving his fingertips on the table and almost touching the hand Connor’s using to brace himself on the table. “You would have been next,” he says, and he doesn’t look away from Connor. 

Connor hadn’t thought he’d really been on the list. He didn’t think they were close, or rather, he thought Nuge didn’t think they were close. “And what would you have told me?” Connor asks. 

Nuge pauses, glancing down at their hands before looking back at Connor. “That I like you.”

“You like me?” he asks, surprised and hopeful enough to stand upright though he’s careful not to move his hand away. 

“Yeah,” he says gently. 

“For how long?” he asks, crossing the space between them and tangling their fingers together. He’d had a pretty bad puppy crush on Nuge after making it onto the Oilers, and he thought he’d gotten rid of it during the injuries and the time away from him. Instead, it had settled into the acknowledgement that if Nuge ever offered him the opportunity, he would take it. 

Nuge shrugs. “A while. I know I was worried for you your rookie year and after you got the C, but you kept proving me wrong in a good way. Then with the curse and having to be more honest about things, it brought some clarity on what about you impressed me and why it mattered. But.”

“But what?”

“But I didn’t want to tell you because I had to or to break a curse.” 

Connor nods because he remembers their conversation. He’d wanted the choice. “Well, I like you, too.”

Ryan grins, and Connor can’t help smiling back. 

“That means I can take you to dinner after the series, yeah?” Ryan asks. 

“Only if I get to kiss you now,” Connor bargains, hoping he’ll agree. 

“Deal,” Ryan says then kisses him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
